The First Lego Game: Lego Island

Developed by ‘Mindscape’ and released for Microsoft Windows worldwide in 1997, Lego Island is the very first Lego-themed Lego video game in a single-player mode.

This game is not only the first Lego game in the series but also the very first Lego game to be released outside of Japan.

The game necessarily doesn’t have an objective but a special mission will occur if the player builds a police helicopter while playing as Pepper Roni. The game’s plot involves Pepper Roni, who is sent to deliver a pizza to the jail which is thought to be for a police officer.

Things will go awry if the helicopter is already built because in that case, the criminal Brickster receives the pizza and uses its fumes to melt the lock! Then, with the help of the already-built helicopter, he will steal a power brick and escape using the helicopter. However, if the helicopter is not built, he will refuse the pizza.

Once Brickster has escaped, the player is tasked with recapturing the criminal. Brickster will continue to wreak havoc. With an intention to disassemble the entire town with his laser gun, Brickster will disassemble several things in the game. Using these disassembled parts, the player has to reach Brickster and capture him.

Depending upon the player’s performance in the game, the player will get either of the two endings. Ending one, involving Brickster winning and all the other buildings in the town disassembled. In ending two, the player wins and Brickster is caught by the police.

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What Made Lego Island so great?

Despite the fact that it was developed before the legendary studio ‘TT Games’ took over, Lego Island was a phenomenal game. The game had a plethora of colorful and interesting characters to offer. Such as Pepper Roni, Mama and Papa Brickolini, Nick and Laura Brick, and of course the villainous Brickster.

The game lets the players roam and explore the virtual island freely, engage in conversations with its entertaining inhabitants, build customized vehicles for the inhabitants, etc. It also had a vast array of minigames that the player could enjoy. The USP of this game was its completely customizable world which was a rare sight to see back in 1997.

The game was already popular because of Lego’s physical toys but after the release of this game, there was an impetus in the sale and popularity of both Lego video games and the physical toys!

However, this game was only the beginning. What followed the release of this game was a never-seen-before success and a slew of legendary Lego games that have since then not shown a single sign of slowing down!

The Success Of Lego Island – The First Lego Game

In the United States alone, the game sold 909,000 copies in 2 years. Apart from being a financial success, the game bagged the 15th spot amongst a list of best-selling computer games of that period.

Apart from financial success, the game was showered with awards from all directions. It won the ‘Family/Kids Entertainment Title Of The Year’ award. It also won the ‘Best Kid Title Of The Year’ award from the American Academy Of Arts and Sciences, Family PC’s top-rated virtual toy award, Family Life’s ‘Critic Choice’ award.

A huge reason why Lego Island was such a big commercial and critical hit was its new concept of a completely customizable world. Apart from that, the game had a very laid-back plotline and easy to understand background story.

Even those Lego-themed characters were really good and each of them had a unique personality. Considering all this, it is no surprise that since then Lego has been ruling the physical toy sphere and the virtual gaming sphere.

The successors

Lego Island received, to no one’s surprise, a sequel. The sequel, Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge was developed by ‘Silicon Dreams Studio’ in 2001. Since then, Lego’s developers were changed and taken over by a British studio called ‘TT Games’ who catapulted the game to brand new heights.

On top of having a Lego-theme, the games also have acquired the themes of various other pop-culture giants For example, ‘Lego Star Wars: The Video Game’, ‘Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4’, ‘Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures’, ‘Lego Marvel’s Avengers’, and many more!